[Sca-cooks] RE: Handling special diet needs at feasts

[Diamond Randall]

Re: [Sca-cooks] Handling special diet needs at feasts
>I think that is excellent. I especially like that you remind people
>about stocks - I've had that argument with cooks a few times. "It's not
>meat, it's just chicken base!" "Yes, it is meat for anyone avoiding
>meat..." Also, notice that lard sometimes sneaks into pastry and baked
>goods.

Well at my feasts, lard NEVER "sneaks into pastry and baked goods".  It
marches in with a trumpet fanfare.  ALWAYS butter; NEVER margarine too!
Salt and spices.... seasoned to the way the dish is SUPPOSED to taste.
ARROGANT?  Perhaps, but program feasts at SCA events to me should carry as
much of the flavour and appearance of the dish served (as much as is
practical to do so anyway within the limits of translation and redaction)
in each course of the feast.  The perception should not be "feast", nor
"Feast", but FEAST!

As to Vegans, vegetarians and food allergies, I generally do NOT work my
feast menus to accommodate them.  I do keep an alternate supply of frozen
commercial entrees suitable to provide a fair-sized meal and to provide
more than one item in each course on an individual basis when I have
sufficient warning.  However, I will not usually attempt redactions that
are customized for preferences and for allergies.  I believe in the
"provide equal but different" theory of provisioning.  A complete list of
ingredients in each dish is IMO very reasonable and a wise precaution.
Care of preventing cross-contamination in the cooking process is very
do-able and a very important task also.  However, having posted ingredients
(and sticking to them in a scrupulous manner), it is up to the individual
feast-goer to take the time to read the posted list and decide what is
acceptable to them and what is not, in advance.

It is my opinion that a formal SCA feast is not merely food service for the
attendees, but is a participatory function of the event just as fighters
participate in different aspects of warfare.  Likewise, the feast allows
participation in recreations of past cuisines.  As a heavy weapons fighter
may not be equipped to participate in a rapier tourney; similarly a strict
vegetarian can choose not to partake of my feast.   Another opinion that I
have towards religious preference (as related to foods) is that I am NOT
going to cook kosher (Orthodox Jews in the SCA have probably figured that
our feasts are not going to be either); nor am I going to go out of my way
to accommodate the time of the feast for Islamic Ramadon observance
(fortunately dusk usually arrives early enough at that time so this is a
non-issue.  Incidentally, what do devout believers in the Islamic faith do
at Ramadon if they live up in the far north where the sun does not set in
Winter???  Starve for a month???

>I've cooked for a group with:
>- one person who wouldn't eat any meat but hamburger or chicken, wouldn't
>eat fish, mushrooms, spaghetti sauce with noticeable vegetables,
>non-tomato fruit with meat, or anything spicy
>- three people who only ate large amounts of meat (pork or beef, not
>poultry) but would tolerate veggies and starch on the side (one wouldn't
>eat green veggies, one was allergic to rosemary)
>- 2 vegetarians
>- one low-fat, wouldn't-eat-most-red-meat-because-of-mad-cow-disease,
>wouldn't-eat-pork-or-shellfish
>-- one wouldn't eat food with weird spicing (??)
>- and a bunch of omnivores.
>
>I'm still proud that no-one got murdered that year. *grin*
>
>-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa

Quite a lot of odd ducks you had there Jadwiga.  If I had encountered some
of those who are IMO being picky (or hysterical over their food); there
would have been some hungry folks left at the end of feast.  NO SYMPATHY
WHATSOEVER!  They should not be attending an SCA feast in the first place;
you don't order a Big Mac at a five star restaurant, you go to McDonalds.
While I recognize that the palates of many modern folks have degradated to
tolerating prepackaged, preprocessed, bland and indescrept food, much of
what I find in period recipes is not far removed from what was served by my
grandmother and great-grandmother on a daily basis.  It has flavour! It has
texture!  And I can see my grandmother just whooping me in the head with
her iron skillet if I had complained about the lard in her biscuits or her
putting bacon drippin's in the greens pot!  Another huge problem with
substitutions (that I refuse to build into my feasts) is that there is so
much variance in the substitute ingredients available these days, you need
a degree in food sciences and chemistry to know what is going in the pot.
With lard, I am relatively sure it to be a comparatively simple product
(with no additives I don't expect to find); likewise hog jowls from the
butcher are relatively free of modern contaminates (except steroids,
anti-biotics and such of course).  That is why I generally now get products
as direct from the farm as possible.  Sometimes I even grow my own.  My
venison shopping consists of my 30.06 and I have about 350 pounds of it
ready for next Spring's feasts.  We are now set up at Glaedenfeld Centre
for slaughter and butchering of animals raised by other SCA members
locally, which may not be free-range, but are going to free of a lot of the
additives and feeds commercial processors use.

I used to work in a slaughterhouse and have designed and built chicken and
egg processing facilities before, so I know what I want to avoid.  If one
uses a product like margarine instead of butter, what is there to prevent
someone from using an Olestra based product as well, not realizing the wide
range of gastric intolerance to this chemical product?  I would rather be a
cook than a chemist .... I'll stick to lard and butter, thank you.

>Her Royal Highness of the East, who has a variety of allergies and is
>uncomfortable with trying something new at the event (well, going into
>anaphylactic shock does tend to ruin everyone's fun, so I see her point),
>mentioned that she tends to bring her own food and eat that at table. I
>don't see a problem with this, other than the whole onboard/outboard price
>issue which drives people mad.

Lastly, as to the E.K. Queen's taste and specifically HRM's allergies, I
WOULD gladly attempt to customize the head table menu to accommodate or
even have a pair of experienced kitchen staffers prepare a completely
different(period) feast menu just for her!  Even if I have to pay for it
out of my own pocket to satisfy the (occasional)mindless jerks among us who
insist that head table can not have special dishes not served to everyone
else as we are a nonprofit and nah-nah-nah, blah, blah, blah.  My
suggestion....Go stuff yourselves at Mickey D's!  I don't feel like cooking
for you if you can not acknowledge the hard work of the Crown and can't
cope with someone giving them a few well deserved perks fro the kitchen!

My, my.  A nice rant... once in while... does feel good!

Akim Yaroslavich